President Barack Obama unveiled history making innovations program to make America's cars more fuel efficient, to reduce USA dependence on foreign oil, cut carbon dioxide pollution, and most importantly, bring down costs for drivers. Stakeholders from auto workers and union representatives to manufacturers and environmental leaders provided inputs, agreed upon this new program, and the new set of MPG standards.This announcement follows up on an aggressive plan that the administration put in place back in 2009, setting ambitious fuel-efficiency and greenhouse-gas standards for 2012-2016 model cars and trucks. That plan alone is estimated to save 1.8 billion barrels of oil -- and save families up to $3,000 at the pump -- over these vehicles' lifetimes. And this new program, covering model years 2017-2025, takes real, tangible steps to raise the bar even higher, nearly doubling the current fuel efficiency of the average car.
Here's what this program will mean in the short term: Rollout of new electric and hybrid vehicles from manufacturers, and more clean-diesel, efficient SUVs and sedans. Automakers will have new incentives to make smart, innovative cars and trucks -- from the materials they choose down to the design of their engines and transmissions. They'll be turning to start-up companies in the clean-energy sector and in advanced battery manufacturing, helping to create jobs across the country.
What will be the program impact? The numbers are huge:
-- By model year 2025, the average American car or truck will get 54.5 miles a gallon (the average car currently gets 23.8 mpg).
-- America would have saved 12 billion barrels of oil and eliminated 6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution.
-- American family that purchases a new car in 2025 will save $8,200 in fuel costs, compared with what they'd pay for gas for a similar vehicle bought in 2010.
-- All told, American drivers will save nearly $2 trillion over the life of the program.
This program is a really big deal. Everyone from truck drivers to farmers to teachers to business owners feel the burden of transportation costs -- and will feel the positive effects of these improvements over the next dozen years.
The program and agencies will consider:
* Incentives for electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel cells vehicles;
* Incentives for advanced technology packages for large pickups, such as hybridization and other performance-based strategies;
* Credits for technologies with potential to achieve real-world CO2 reductions and fuel economy improvements that are not captured by the standards test procedures.
Bottomline: The new fuel-efficiency standards will jump start unprecedented design and manufacturing changes in American automobiles, fueling new startup suppliers and manufacturers, and creating countless new opportunities. Call it the Get Fit program for American cars and trucks, Save Money program that ushers in tremendous annual savings for the American family, New Jobs program that results in hiring of auto engineers and designers, or New Startups program that will create new auto entrepreneurs and auto suppliers - this unprecedented fuel-efficiency innovations program is a win-win. Congratulations President Obama and the 54.5 MPG program team!